Hartwell, William H.

William Herman Hartwell was born in Keene, New Hampshire on August 28, 1844. His parents had both died by the time he graduated from school in 1862, when he decided to enlist in the Union Army to fight in the Civil War. He fought in numerous battles, advancing through the ranks to sergeant. He was captured by Confederate forces on September 30, 1864 and held as a prisoner-of-war for five months. He received an Honorable Discharge in June 1865. After the war, he and his brother headed out west to make a new life for themselves. His brother was killed by Indians in Kansas, but Hartwell settled in Kirkwood, Illinois, married Lila Pence, and started a family. They had two sons. He then took his family to Iowa in 1878, but three years later, his wife died. In 1890, he married again, to a widow named Mrs. Florence Ellis. She bore him two daughters. By 1915, the family had moved to Santa Barbara, California, where William Hartwell died on May 23, 1924 at the age of 79. In 1939, his daughter Ruth married Franklin W. Nordhoff, and she collected and transcribed her father's writings and reminiscences of the Civil War. She died in 1995.

From the description of William H. Hartwell Papers, ca. 1865-1963. (University of California, Santa Barbara). WorldCat record id: 57190842

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